Desert Community College District
Board of Trustees Meeting
CODAA Report
Madam Chair and Trustee Stefan, Trustee Gonzalez, Trustee Kinnamon, Trustee Perez and, Student Trustee Pahl
Today is a very sad day for CODAA. Today is a day that no one thought would happen. Today is a day that we NEVER wanted to happen.
I am here to advise you that CODAA polled each of its active constituents, just over 350 Part-time Instructors and, in individually identifiable responses (zero anonymous responses), we have concluded, by a vote of 302 to 08 with 40 not responding, that the part-time faculty has NO CONFIDENCE in this Board’s ability to perform its duties to College of the Desert and the community.
The Board’s public display of dysfunction and continuing pursuit of personal agendas have caused your part-time faculty to be completely demoralized. More importantly, the students at this institution have been left without the leadership and support that they require.
CODAA members are embarrassed by your behavior and believe that you should publicly apologize to the citizenry of the Coachella Valley.
To avoid the appearance of impropriety and political maneuvering, CODAA demands that the Board refrain from appointing any internal Administrator to fill the position soon to be vacated by the resignation of President / Superintendent Dr. Martha Garcia. We suggest that you seek assistance from the California Community College Chancellor’s office in identifying an Interim President, by July 1, 2023.
Also, CODAA recommends that the Board ask the County of Riverside to conduct a special election in November of 2023 to allow the citizens of Palm Springs and Cathedral City (Area 3) to select a replacement for Fred Jandt who recently resigned from the Board of Trustees because of health reasons. CODAA does not want to watch factions of the Board scheming to appoint a replacement Trustee until the next scheduled election in November of 2024.
On a positive note, CODAA is pleased and proud to announce the creation of the David Bashore Award for Outstanding Support to CODAA and the College of the Desert. The inaugural recipient is Nori Bambusch, the very accomplished and always jovial Administrative Assistant for Business and Applied Sciences. We admire and congratulate Nori on this richly deserved award.
Cheryl Etter , Senate Administrative to the Faculty Senate was voted the Judith Mandel Award recipient for 2023 for her tireless efforts and advocacy for the Adjunct voice on Senate and the organizational help has produced successful Adjunct FLEX days.
There are 4 candidates for Adjunct of the Year: Scott Colwell, Lisa Davenport, Christina Dodough and Elizabeth Morgan
CODAA Executive Board member, Steve Acree deserves special recognition for his leadership in creating and implementing a Diversity Awareness Program for CODAA constituents.
